Karen National Union (KNU) brigades have been instructed to open fire when junta troops cross clear lines of territorial control amid a Myanmar military offensive centred on the town of Lay Kay Kaw in Kayin State, according to sources close to the ethnic armed group. 

A Border Guard Force (BGF) member was injured when a landmine exploded while he was patrolling near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border fence in northern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, over the weekend. 

A state-owned vessel will begin plying a water route between Kyauktaw in Arakan State and Chin State’s Paletwa once a week, according to the Arakan State Administration Council, a subsidiary of Myanmar’s junta. 

Local products from various Arakan (Rakhine) State townships are being made known locally and abroad and the market is being expanded through free online advertising and direct contact between sellers and buyers, according to We Love Rakhine, a Facebook page. 

Two of three men allegedly behind a counterfeit ID card racket in Arakan State have been arrested so far, according to police.

The chairman of the Taungup Township Youth Network, who was arrested this week and accused of having ties to the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF), will appear in court for the first time on December 28, according to his family.  

A charity doctor at a private hospital in Mawlamyine, Mon State, who was arrested by junta forces earlier this month, has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, according to local sources. 

Clashes between the Myanmar military and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) continued in the country’s east on Saturday afternoon, with hostilities reported in areas controlled by Brigade Nos. 1 and 6 of the Karen National Union (KNU), the KNLA’s political wing. 

Civil society organisations are urging authorities to pay attention to rising Covid-19 infections in Arakan State. 

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Lay Kay Kaw town, Kayin State, has forced some 2,500 locals to flee their homes near the Thai border, with the Thai government providing humanitarian assistance, according to the Aid Alliance Committee (AAC). 

With Myanmar’s political turmoil leading to a bearish construction sector across much of the country, migrant workers with building experience are finding employment at construction sites in the relative stability of Arakan State. 

Training in mushroom cultivation is being provided at IDP camps in the Arakan State capital Sittwe and other townships in the state in hopes that these displaced populations can eventually run their own mushroom-growing businesses. 

The young author Min Di Par from Pan Maw village in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, who has been charged under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law, appeared again in court on December 16. 

Several junta soldiers were killed and wounded, while others were taken as prisoners of war after the Myanmar military clashed with Karen National Union (KNU) forces in the town of Lay Kay Kaw, Kayin State, on December 15, with hostilities reportedly continuing on Thursday. 

The Arakan State High Court on Thursday reduced by six months the prison terms of four students who were sentenced to a total of 2.5 years behind bars over an unlawful protest in October 2020, according to the defendants’ lawyer. 

Danyawadi Stadium in Sittwe is being upgraded to a state-of-the-art facility at a cost of K1 billion and the project is about 80% completed, according to U Pyae Phyo Lin, managing director of Coral Akyab Group Company.

Clashes were reported on Wednesday morning between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and junta forces in the town of Lay Kay Kaw, Kayin State, after weeks of rising tensions in the area.

Truck drivers and merchants are facing difficulties due to stricter inspections at a security checkpoint on the Yangon-Sittwe highway in Ann Township, Arakan State. 

 Joint teams including military and police personnel, along with civil society organisations, will undertake patrols in Sittwe amid reports of a rise in thefts and other criminality in the Arakan State capital.